Collins Artist’s Little Book of Inspiration. Hazel Soan

person will make the tall person appear taller and the short person seem shorter. A red next to an orange will force the orange to look more yellow, pushing it away from red around the colour circle towards green.

      When we look for the effects of comparisons around us colours leap out from their surroundings. Red flowers, for example, look richer on dull days than in warm sunlight as the surrounding cool dull greens push them deeper into the warmth of red. A mauve cloud will make the sky around it appear more blue.

      Altered colour

      The perceived colours of objects are altered by tinted and reflected light. The white of a boat hull lit by the yellow-orange light of sunset is tinted a golden yellow, while the shadows cast by ropes and fenders take on a complementary blue. Light or shiny-surfaced items reflect brightly coloured adjacent objects. A red tomato on a white kitchen top shares its colour with the surface beneath.

      As you paint you will notice more subtle effects. Look for painting ideas on polished wood, crockery against white cloth, or on newspapers and alongside any reflective or wet surfaces.

      Coloured light may be fleeting, so keep hold of the inspiration in sketchbook notations or on camera.

      Colour and mood

      Colour also has temperature; for instance, red is warm, while blue is cool. Reds, yellows and oranges, light bright tones and energetic brushstrokes bestow a cheerful mood on paintings. Subtler warm colours and tones tend to be uplifting rather than vivacious in their effect. Jarring combinations of vivid colours combined with brusque marks can even suggest anger.

      Cool colours, especially blues, evoke calm, restraint, or melancholy. If you wish a subject to be peaceful look for the blues within the view, and if you want joie de vivre seek out oranges, warm yellows and reds. Emphasize these with their complementaries.

      To assess temperature look carefully at each colour in relation to the next. Ask yourself, ‘Is this colour redder or bluer than that one, even by the tiniest amount?’, ‘Is it colder or warmer?’. It is these differences in colours, one against another, that build any subject into an interesting painting.

      In the Morning Light 38 x 28 cm (15 x 11 in), oil on paper This painting is almost all blue with just a few dashes of yellow in the areas of light. The mood created by the blues is easier to read in paint than to put into words; it evokes both tenderness and vulnerability without being in the least depressing.

      Christmas at the Ritz Club 20 x 20 cm (8 x 8 in), watercolour Lamplight and firelight bathe the room with a warm yellow glow. Yellow Ochre is the perfect colour for this warm light.